News

The Communities and Families Choose Youth Work North East and South West Locality Programmes for 2019-20 are now open. The closing date for completed applications is 3pm on 1st February 2019 and you will find the application pack and information available for downloading.
The maximum value of award is £5,000 and the minimum award will be £2,500.

Applications Now Open

The Communities and Families Choose Youth Work Citywide Programme for 2019-20 is now open. The closing date for applications is 3pm on 1 February 2019 and you will find the application pack available for downloading.

The maximum value of award is £15,000 and the minimum will be £10,000.

Should you have any questions about the programme please contact chooseyouthwork@edinburgh.gov.uk or telephone 0131 529 6507 or 0131 529 2132.

Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council (EVOC) sits down with Lord Provost, Frank Ross to discuss the overarching vision for the city of Edinburgh.

In 2016, a conversation was sparked within the city of Edinburgh about what a vision for 2050 would look like, what are the city’s priorities and what kind of place should it be. Explaining the case for the Edinburgh 2050 City Vision, Frank Ross, Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, said:

“Edinburgh is a tremendously successful city on so many different levels, outside London we are the most economically successful city bar none. But we still have this issue where 20% of our population are still in poverty.”

An Over-Arching Vision

He continued: “Edinburgh as a city has never had an overarching vision, about what Edinburgh’s citizens want their city to be.”

Although everyone, even people who don’t live in Edinburgh but may work or have family here, is welcome to have their say – the Lord Provost explains that the city vision depends on being informed by younger generations.

“It is aimed at the 5 to 35 year olds who will be running every aspect of the city, it will be their future and their families that are living here. We need to understand what the ambition is.”

Continuing, he explained that understanding citizens’ priorities and creating a vision would help to inform how future investment can best be spent. “Over the next five to ten years, we are going to be making a significant investment in this city. We’ve just won a £1.2 billon city region deal, with the vast majority of this to be invested in the city.”

The vision itself will be based on opinions and data collected from respondents by Marketing Edinburgh. An initial market test of a few thousand people revealed that the emerging themes were that people wanted their city to be: fair, connected, greener and affordable.

Participation is Key

However, the Lord Provost pointed out that this was only a small sample and that the success of making sure the vision fits with what people actually think will depend on participation.

He said: “If we don’t get a significant number of citizens engaged with this, it is pretty meaningless as a vision and it is key that we get young people across the whole spectrum of society to contribute. I would love to get 250,000 people contributing, that’s my target and I am going to do everything I can to get that done.”

The Purpose of the Vision

When it becomes clear what Edinburgh’s own view is of what its future should like, the 2050 vision will provide the city’s leaders with a ‘guiding light’ when taking decisions.

The Lord Provost continued: “The vision should give us a moral compass about what it is that we want our city to be. When I’m making a decision, is that what the city wants? The whole point of having the vision is to check decisions against a big bright light in the sky and say if that’s not compatible, I’ll need to look at it again. We’ve made decisions too myopically.

“While we are working away to address social inclusion issues now, we are putting a vision up there to stop the equivalent happening again.”

Business is Booming

It is hoped that the 2050 City Vision will provide the city’s businesses and organisations with a solid foundation upon which to build their strategies to meet the needs of the city’s residents.

Data collected from people’s responses will be anonymised and uploaded to an open resource, which businesses can access. The Lord Provost hopes that this sharing of information will create a joined up approach to putting the city vision into motion.

He said: “As a council, we will hold every strategy and policy up against that vision and ask is it consistent? I would expect most organisations to do the same, if you operate within Edinburgh and you have data about what the citizens of Edinburgh want, to ignore that would be crazy.”

It would seem that some of Edinburgh’s organisations are fully on board, as £450,000 to fund the project has been raised by the Council privately, invested by businesses who believe that they can benefit from an understanding of what the city wants.

Volunteering

The role of volunteering both for the Third Sector and for Edinburgh’s citizens is a very important one. Over 600,000 hours are donated every week and 159,000 people in Edinburgh regularly volunteer. Speaking about how active citizenship and volunteering will play a role in the 2050 City Vision, he said:

“Edinburgh is phenomenal for volunteering and volunteering will have its place in delivering whatever the vision turns out to be. We are talking about being integrated, about being a happier society, about being encouraging, inclusive and aspirational – these are things which I think volunteering can assist.

“What I want to do is to make sure all these people who volunteer engage because it is their ethos and their beliefs that I want to see coming through.”

The Bottom Line

The Council is confident that a city vision for Edinburgh can change the way that decision making is made, with mass participation in the consultation being the key factor.

“This has got real power. If this works properly, instead of me as a politician standing in front the electorate saying ‘this is what I believe’ and you as an electorate saying ‘I don’t actually agree with you but I will choose the least worst’ or don’t vote – the electorate can say ‘this is what I believe in, which one of you can deliver this for me?’

“This is seismic, and if we could get to that stage it would be true local democracy where the citizens are setting the agenda.”

With a view over Princes Street from the windows of the impressive Provost suite within the City Chambers, the conversation continued around the importance of the Third Sector in bringing voices seldom heard into the discussion.

How can I get Involved?

You can share your vision at https://www.edinburgh2050.com/ and encourage others to get involved.Follow 2050 Edinburgh City Vision with #Edinburgh2050 on Twitter.

The City of Edinburgh Council has opened a citywide consultation on proposals for a Transient Visitor Levy (TVL) or ‘Tourist Tax’.
Having conducted detailed research, informal engagement with industry stakeholders and an in-depth survey of residents and visitors, the Council last month set out key aspects of how a scheme could look.
Now, views are being sought from all city stakeholders but, in particular, the hospitality and tourism sector, plus city businesses and investors, culture partners, visitors and residents, concerning the best possible arrangements for introducing a TVL in Edinburgh.
The draft proposal suggested a charge of either 2% or £2 per room per night, chargeable all year round on all forms of accommodation, including short-term lets, but capped at seven nights. Respondents are being asked for their views on the details of the scheme but also importantly what any income raised should be spent on.
The Council has been clear that it sees the purpose of this fund as being to invest in and manage the consequences of the future success of tourism within the city and respondents will also be asked to identify things they feel could benefit from the estimated to be at least £11m per annum that would be raised.
Alongside the online consultation, which will last for eight weeks, the Council is planning further targeted engagement with stakeholders. This will include three open workshops with industry representatives, a workshop with investors and four resident focus groups.
Officers, meanwhile, continue to make offers to attend board meetings, membership meetings and 1:1s with industry and other partners.

The City of Edinburgh Council working together with grant managers and listening to feedback from the third sector have been developing best practice guidance and planning for future grant funding. These Grant Standing Orders will form part of this best practice approach.The following points are addressed by the proposed Grant Standing Orders

These are:
Guidance to assist distinction between grants and contracts

What grant agreements should have as a minimum
roles and responsibilities

Directors required to adhere to

GSO,s co-production principles,

Remedy conflicts of interest

Update grants register

Assessment by more than one Council officer

Process for grants over £100K approved by Committee
award over £25,000 go to Committee

Conflicts of Interest and Councillors Code of Conduct

Any questions, comments or feedback please do not hesitate to contact me at maggie.deane@edinburgh.gov.uk. Please could you let me have any queries by 30th October to allow time for any amendments and Committee lead in times.

After 18 years in its current home at 14 Ashley Place, EVOC will be moving to new premises located at 525 Ferry Road from Monday 29th October 2018.

Our main telephone number and email addresses will remain the same.

With the current building due to be demolished, EVOC has been able to secure a spacious and open plan workspace that it will share with other third sector organisations, fostering a spirit of collaboration and partnership working.

Ella Simpson, CEO of EVOC said: “Given that 14 Ashley Place was secured 18 years ago as a temporary home for EVOC, our time here has come to a natural end. We are very excited to move to new premises and about working creatively within a shared workspace.

“There is plenty of space for meetings and events in our new home, along with ample car parking and public transport links and we look forward to putting these facilities to use for meetings and training and offering our members access to hot desk facilities.”

Amongst others, EVOC will share this new space with Edinburgh Palette, the organisation responsible for the community of makers, designers, artists, creative enterprises and charities initially based at St Margaret’s House.

Dale Gibson, CEO of Edinburgh Palette, said: “EVOC has been very helpful and supportive of the Edinburgh Palette project since its foundation in 2007. Both organisations are constantly engaged in looking for ways to expand opportunities for people, communities and charities. We are delighted to welcome EVOC to 525 Ferry Road, and are excited by the possibilities this closer association presents.”

To celebrate, EVOC will be hosting an ‘Open Office’ day on Thursday 6th December between 10am and 4pm. Guests are invited to enjoy tea and cake and a tour of EVOC’s new home.

If you would like to attend or if you have any questions about the move please email info@evoc.org.uk or call 0131 555 9000

It has come to our attention that some applicants may not have submitted their application(s) successfully. If you have submitted an application to H&SCGrants@edinburgh.gov.uk and not received an automated e-mail receipt and have evidence to show that you submitted an application, please get in touch with Kate McVie at: kate.mcvie@edinburgh.gov.uk

In your e-mail please include:
• The name of your organisation
• The date and time which you submitted your application
• A copy of the e-mail which accompanied your submission
• The number of applications which you submitted
• The e-mail address it was submitted from

Please do not e-mail us if you have already been in touch regarding this or have received an automated e-mail receipt from H&SCGrants@edinburgh.gov.uk – this may have gone into your junk/bulk folder, please check before contacting us.

‘Open All Hours’ : A Lothian-wide Third Sector Event to explore ideas preventing the need for, and enhancing the delivery of, out of hours care.
NHS Lothian and the four Lothian IJBs are currently working together to redesign care services for primary care out of hours periods – namely evenings/overnight, weekends and public holidays.

This event will bring together the senior decision makers of the Programme Board and third sector organisations to explore ideas and discuss how we might develop proposals to support patient needs.

Programme aim:
‘To develop an Urgent Care Resource Hub which coordinates well-led and well-supported multidisciplinary health and social care teams, including third and independent sector, to deliver urgent care in the Out of Hours Period’

System issues:
We are noticing disjointed patient pathways through the Out of Hours Services
There are numerous pressures on current Out of Hours Services, such workload, workforce and a pressure to deliver more care in the community
We need to build a sustainable integrated model that delivers the right care at the right time in the right place

Please contact kyle.stuart@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk to provide us with any dietary requirements or accessibility requirements

With over 80 attendees a the screening of the film Resilience, we were able to host a good discussion on how the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACES) work can influence the work in Edinburgh with children and families

The panel consisted of:

Mark Merrell (EVOC)

Linda Irvine (NHS)

Carole Kelly (Positive Realities)

Gail Macleod (Edinburgh University)

Diarmaid Lawlor (Architecture and Design Scotland and Chair of the Commission of Prevention).

We asked the panel to give their thoughts on the film and this is what they said.

There are no magic bullets to fixing ACES…we need the resources to really make any changes to people’s lives.

Let’s not put all the onus on the family we need to remember that there are also the structural and government issues, we need to work on policies and legislation. For example we shouldn’t forget the impact of universal credit, use of food banks has increased 5 fold in areas where it has been rolled out.

This film is important because it reminds us that it is valid to consider the long term effects of issues on people’s lives.

The emotional punch at the first viewing of the film shouldn’t be underestimated, and it is useful to watch it a second time – the use of ACES terminology and this film provides those in position to influence hooks to open doors with the policy makers.

We know that it is the little things that make a big difference. How do we get policy makers to listen to people. Mind the Craic the commission for prevention gives us an opportunity to illustrate this as it develops.

What the audience thought

The film was well received by the audience and everyone felt they had come away better informed. We asked the audience what they would do as a result of this morning and we have gathered their responses here.

A real emphasis on sharing information about the film with colleagues, remembering to be empathetic, some commitment from people to become that trusted person with whom a strong relationship can form and a lot of commitment to bring people’s “own self” into the work they do.